Arielle Zuckerberg, venture capitalist and sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, says major technology companies were "terrified" when Donald Trump won the US presidential election, but the mood has since shifted to "cautiously curious".

After loudly backing Hillary Clinton for president, Silicon Valley is nonetheless worried about a backlash from the Trump administration – with immigration, trade barriers and the impact of automation the key concerns.

Ms Zuckerberg, who joined venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers last year, said the tech industry is worried that its relationship with the US government, which became decidedly cosy under President Barack Obama, will deteriorate under Mr Trump.

"Government and technology have had a really good relationship the past couple of decades ... the government has served us well," said Ms Zuckerberg. Mr Obama co-edited the November issue of WIRED magazine, and he is expected to maintain his close ties to Silicon Valley when he leaves office.

"We kind of took for granted how nice the government has been to us. It's very unclear if Trump will love and respect the tech industry and serve the tech industry," she said. Ms Zuckerberg was speaking to a delegation from the Melbourne Accelerator Program in San Francisco.

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One bright spot is Mr Trump's proposal during the campaign to cut corporate tax to 15 per cent and levy a one-time tax rate of 10 per cent to lure foreign profits back to the US. But the potential for discord is likely to be focused on immigration, import duties and automation, with studies showing that jobs in blue-collar and white-collar industries, including professional services, could be lost to the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the coming decades. The impact will be especially acute with the expected introduction of autonomous vehicles, which will wipe out driving jobs.

"Trump's entire campaign was based on the fact we need to bring more jobs back [to the US]. And there are definitely innovations that are going to make certain jobs obsolete," she said.

Former Apple executive and Silicon Valley business adviser Mark Johnson believes the technology industry is going to have to start dealing with the impact of technology on society. He was raised in the midwest, which heavily backed Mr Trump and where many blame free trade agreements for job losses, but it is really automation that's to blame, he said. US factories produce twice as much as in 1984, but with two-thirds of the workforce.

"I think the risk now is that there will be a backlash against tech, because tech is responsible for all of this." But he says "if you ask some big tech leaders about whether it is their responsibility to think about the uses of their technology from a societal perspective, many of them will say no. Many of them don't seem to care."

Perhaps the biggest worry for the tech sector is the shortage of skilled tech workers.This could get worse if the President-elect follows through with a threat to limit H1B visas that allow US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in some occupations.

"For large tech companies and small tech companies alike, the limit to H1B visas is going to create a lot of challenges for hiring skilled workers," Ms Zuckerberg said. "There is a huge talent crunch – that is going to make it even worse."

If talent can't get hired, business growth could be impeded. John Scull, managing director of Southern Cross Venture Partners, said half of the net worth of Silicon Valley companies over the last 40 years came from companies founded by immigrants. He said it was too early to assess the impact of Mr Trump on the sector, but believes his tough talk during the campaign should be discounted.

"I think most of it was rhetoric, a shot across the bow of the technology industry to show his supporters he is in charge."

While Mr Trump has publicly opposed the AT&T Time Warner deal, Ms Zuckerberg said she doesn't believe Trump would take anti-trust measures against the dominant tech companies Google, Amazon and Facebook, even though leaders of those companies were outspoken in their criticism of the candidate before the election and their support for Democratic candidate Mrs Clinton.

Mr Trump suggested Apple should ensure it manufactures in the US and that import duties could be imposed on foreign goods. That could have a big impact on the cost of iPhones, laptops and desktop computers, and other hardware companies which rely on foreign factories and assembly plants.

Ms Zuckerberg said many of the companies in which Kleiner Perkins has invested "are extremely worried about manufacturing supply chains – there's a lot of uncertainty around that".

Last week the Nikkei Asian Review reported Apple had in June asked two of its manufacturers, Foxconn and Pegatron, to assess the cost of shifting their assembly operations to the US. Mr Trump has in the past threatened Amazon with tax and anti-trust investigations. The Washington Post,owned by Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos​, was highly critical of Mr Trump during the election campaign. Two days after the election, Mr Bezos posted "Congratulations to @RealDonaldTrump," on Twitter. "I for one give him my most open mind and wish him great success in his service to the country."

Google, Facebook, Apple and Oracle are expected to take advantage of the lower tax rate to repatriate more than $US2 trillion in profits held offshore. Apple alone has $200 billion in foreign bank accounts. "There will be potentially some positive effects, for example, lowering the corporate tax, the repatriation of money that is currently in bank accounts abroad," said Ms Zuckerberg. She said lowering the tax "will incentivize people to bring back that money into the states".

Apple, Google (Alphabet), Amazon and Facebook shares are all lower since the election.

Joanne Gray travelled to San Francisco as a guest of the Melbourne Accelerator Program, part of the University of Melbourne.